Audits - Group Audit Considerations (Revised CAS 600)

Overview

There are many special considerations for Group Audits and CAS 600 – Group Audit Considerations which has recently been revised.  This course provides an overview of the key requirements of the revised standard, highlights changes and provides guidance on scalability for the less complex entity with few or no external component auditors. Communication between the component and group auditor is also covered. 

The course will explain the requirements of the revised CAS 600 standard and how to apply them in a less complex entity environment when there are few or no component auditors involved in the group audit. Differences between the extant and revised standard will be highlighted. Practical guidance will be provided on interpreting and applying the standard. The material includes various exercises and examples to help facilitate group discussion and exchange of ideas amongst the instructor and participants.   

Course Content:

In this course, you will gain knowledge about the following topics: 

• Scope of CAS 600 
• Achieving quality on a group audit  
• Engagement acceptance or continuance, including restrictions on access to information or people  
• Overall group audit strategy and group audit plan  
• Understanding the group and its environment, the applicable financial reporting framework and the group's system of internal controls 
• Risk-based approach for planning and performing the group audit  
• Materiality and aggregation risk  
• Responsibilities of group engagement partner and group auditor 
• Communicating and interacting with component auditors  
• Using audit evidence from an audit performed for another purpose  
• Documentation  
• Professional skepticism  
• Scalability of the standard 
• Canadian amendments to ISA 600 (revised) 

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this course, you should be able to: 

• Understand the new requirements including the scope and applicability of the revised CAS 600 standard  
• Understand the difference between the revised and extant standards
• Understand the responsibilities of the group engagement partner and group auditor  
• Understand how the group auditor communicates and interacts with component auditors 
• Apply the revised standard when there are few or no component auditors (scalability) 
• Determine the appropriate level of documentation to address the revised standard  
• Understand how the auditor manages audit quality at the group and component level 
• Recognize the importance of professional skepticism and professional judgment in planning and performing a group audit 

Who Will Benefit:

This course is intended for public practitioners as well as managers and senior staff members employed in public practice who are conducting group audits.